Flit Knits

Blur

2008-08-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a month in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. A month of sheer, unadulterated joy, the beauty of living in an intentional community and the heartbreak of leaving many wonderful new friends who I felt a deep connection to within that short time. I also got to work at my passion as the baker's assistant. Heaven.

There aren't words to describe it....some pictures will have to do:

My oldest friend

2008-06-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

This same moon saw me crying through the back window of my parent's car as a song on the radio broke my heart open, it watched me spin around and around with a group of people to Rembetika music outside a cafe in Chios , as it rose blood red over the Mediterranean. I can even imagine it catching my attention as a baby slung over my mother's shoulder on a summer evening a brilliant, glowing ball on the horizon.

One of the first things I look for when I go outside in the evening is the moon. Throughout numerous moves, lonely evenings spent smoking out back (when I was smoking) and times of transcendent joy it has been there. So much changes, but it has been with me wherever I go and whatever I'm doing.

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It doesn't matter how well you know yourself...What matters is how you relate to what you do know. ~Mark Epstein

Every Thursday evening I drive along the Braes Bayou to the meditation center and the moon is there keeping me company in the damp green heat of Houston. Over the last month or so this winding road past trees dripping with Spanish Moss has moved me past something, a resistance I have had all this time to this place and myself in it. My feelings about sprawl and a car-centric city haven't changed, but something has shifted. I'm not looking to leave here unless something very specific comes looking to take me away.

I had dinner on Friday with a friend at a restaurant I had been dreaming about since we moved here. The entire menu was local and the food was stunning. I told my friend that I was tired of always wishing myself elsewhere, not to mention moving, and that we will make our lives here as if it is the only place there is to be. We walked outside the restaurant and I stood under a peach tree full of velvety ripe fruit and saw the moon through its branches and thought of it shining on my own garden: the fig tree, meyer lemons, blackberries and muscadines.

I thought, where the moon is, that's home.

Coming out of the shell

2008-06-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

We found this snail shell on a morning walk. The snail either abandoned the shell, doubtful, or was plucked up and emptied by one of the herons that sometimes hang out in the trees of our neighborhood which is bordered by one of the many bayous that make this Bayou City. For the uninitiated these are not pronounced Bye ooo as I did when I first landed on these humid shores, but Bye O. Anyway, this snail is no native either. A gourmand or entrepreneur (or so the story goes) "introduced" them to the area hoping for a windfall in escargot. I do love escargot, but have never gotten up the courage to harvest them for consumption. Which doesn't mean my hands are clean, as I do round them up and make them "swim" in order to save our garden harvest. They can wreak havoc.

This snail is a good metaphor for what's happening in our lives in these parts soon. The shell is what I've surrounded myself with the past several years; taking care of others, putting my own needs and desires on hold and also just holding on to what came before in a way that keeps me from moving forward. I'm hoping to leave that all behind. A tall order, but one worth pursuing I think. I feel like this is a watershed year for me. I turned 40 and I'm about to spend an entire month on my own without my family. When I come back I will embark on a new career path.

The kids are heading out together to spend two months with their grandmother on a farm that has been in the family since 1885. I'm so happy that they can sit by the fireplace with books I read as a child and listen to their grandmother's stories.

And all three of us girls, heading out on our adventures, have a wonderful guy who supports us in our need to expand our horizons holding down the fort!

Onward

2008-05-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

In truth I gave notice at my job two days ago, BUT this is because I was accepted into the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Houston AND I was accepted into the volunteer program at a meditation retreat in Vermont for the month of July. Big changes on the horizon and an unbelievable month all to myself (it has been 16 years since I've had one of those!).

There has been some tense dramarama at my job post giving notice. My boss was actually very nice about me leaving, but there are other issues with other people and I will be glad to walk away from there in three more weeks.

In exchange for working 30 hours a week Monday-Friday here I will have the privilege of spending, room and board free, the month of July far from the wilting Houston heat. Much to my delight I was informed that the majority of work will be outside. This will hopefully detoxify me from the desk bound life I've been leading. I've already got the books I plan to read while there lined up, some fresh notebooks on hold as well as visits planned with two women I love and haven't seen in a while, one in Quebec and the other in Burlington.

The kids are spending two months with their grandmother on her farm in Argentina this summer and Juan will be watching all the crazy violent movies I can't take here at home.

Come August I will be in school once again. I'm excited about the program in large part because we are required to work at a community agency for 16 hours a week every semester. I'm a hands on kind of girl and think/hope that classes will be more interesting due to the fact that all the students will actually have real life experiences to bring to the theory and study of social issues.

One other thing I am looking forward to in July is no access to a computer. It's been at least 12 years since that has happened for more than a short bit of time. I plan to write letters something I did a lot more of before email entered my life!

Here

2008-04-11T21:49:00.001-07:00

This weekend there are no fixed plans a relief and a luxury after over a month of weekends on the go. Fridays are traditionally family nights so we had dinner and then Madelines and tea outside with the local wildlife.

Sofía is my nature chick. She reminds me of myself at that age. I spent hours staring into a creek bed, catching frogs and even more hours turning over rotting logs to see if I could capture newts. I wanted so much to be a herpetologist and to write for National Geographic. My own father saw his dreams of being an "ologist" in me. The last time I visited him he pulled out a record he found that was made in a booth when he was 10 where he talked about wanting to become a scientist "geologist, zoologist or some kind of ologist." He used to hang out around the staff entrance of the Museum of Natural History in Washington DC hoping to learn more about the things he found, and he learned how to do taxidermy from one of the scientists who must have seen some potential in him. The sound of his young hopeful voice made me very sad. College was so far out of the reality of anyone in his family and he never managed to make it there. He had a family to support instead. I grew up with snakes and lizards and preserved these pets when they died in the formaldehyde my dad kept in his closet. I regret never having been challenged in science and I do think a lot of it had to do with being a girl. Sofia announced this evening that she wants to be "a natural scientist that studies frogs and toads" that would be a herpetologist! No pressure, but it would be cool!

The only fixed plan I have this weekend is to go see Marjane Satrapi with Micaela. My very good friend Adam gave Micaela her first book a few years ago. We have yet to see the movie, but Micaela is looking forward to getting her book signed for her collection of books signed by women authors including Isabel Allende and Gloria Steinem(a picture of her getting the book signed and she wasn't 9 she was 4!). The only man in the group is Ira Glass who we saw earlier this year.

I'm feeling rather insular these days...I'm trying to be here in my life even when it sucks, which the 8-4 part definitely does. This too shall pass.

This is what 40 looks like

2008-02-24T13:08:00.001-08:00

A day like any other, but with bigger expectations I suppose. A beautiful brunch out with my family, a new book of poetry bought (a yearly tradition) and the gift I most wanted received. Things aren't quite as I'd hope they'd be at this milestone in my life, but when are things ever quite as we hope? I'm trying to appreciate the moments I'm given.

Somewhere under the rainbow....

2007-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to visit my friend in D.C. We walked out of Second Story Books on Dupont Circle to the most amazing rainbow either of us had ever seen. It was huge and luminous and the picture doesn't do it justice, but it was worth documenting.

Last night we celebrated Solstice which is, of course, technically today, but today Micaela has a friend over and Sofia is at a sleepover. This is the first year we have decided to do the whole gift thing on Solstice. I look forward to sleeping in on the day most dedicate to presents. The kids were beyond happy with their gifts and extremely grateful. I'm grateful that today brought a Solstice mix (and other goodies!) from the musical Wordy Diva and a gift certificate to a local spa from my boss.

Tomorrow we will be invaded by teenage girls for a birthday party. Micaela will officially be 14 on Sunday. There is an element of deja vu in the whole thing; some of these kids are dressing in the "latest" 80s fashions and the movie line up is retro too....The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Stand By Me and Heathers. The last two I recommended as they asked me help them find 80s films. Nice to be of some use.

There is absolutely no one who makes me laugh like Micaela makes me laugh. I could not have imagined, 14 years ago, as I cursed the heat and my enormous belly how much I would enjoy being the mother of a teenage girl. She speaks her mind, has great style, stands up for what she believes in and isn't afraid to show us affection in public or act like a total goof ball. Who else would skip down the bayou walking path with me while singing made up lyrics to hypothetical heavy metal songs? I know, no one. Truly she's a kindred spirit and I'm glad we met up this time around.

Late night loopy

2007-12-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

It's late and I'm luxuriating in the thought of not having to get up at six in the morning and walk the dog in the dark before heading off to eight hours in an office. Of course the long list of things I have to do tomorrow will hit me like a speeding truck in the haze of my impending sleep deprivation, but for now I'm goofing off. Happy Friday (ok, technically Saturday now)!

Let the madness begin!

2007-12-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Today was my second day back at work full time. So far so good, except reading policy and bioethics papers for 4 hours in a row starts to make your eyes go blurry. The biggest bonus was finding out that the center closes for two weeks over the holidays. Enforced vacation time and no more worries about juggling the kids being out of school, priceless. Crazy evenings trying to catch up with kids, make dinner or walk the dog (Juan and I switch off), supervise homework, then violin practice , make the next days lunches etc. etc. not so much. A balance will be found!

I can finally post a picture of my latest finished object, the last swap in an almost year long swap with the members of my former knit and spin group in Illinois. This hat has Sarah written all over it!

Sofia looks pretty cute in it too, although the light could be better. I spun the yarn and then knit the hat and felted it. The red flower is from a sweater Sarah gave me long ago and the black velvet button was taken from a 1940's coat dress I no longer wear.

I've been sewing quite a bit and have everything to make this (I was the happy recipient of the one pictured, my last swap gift from Dorie. Ironically I bought Lotta Jansdotter's book the day before I got the bag, I now plan to make one for my mom.) and this. Both of them holiday gifts. Sofia made a place mat for herself from the Lotta Jansdotter book and I made this backpack.

My plan was to show it on my back, but it makes me look like a linebacker. Note to self: much longer straps next time. This backpack will go to some lucky kid.

Just a few pictures from today...

2007-12-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Getting Gracie riled up!

Battle of the Bands, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Juan exchanging breath with a statue outside the Museum of Fine Arts Houston where I also saw an amazing exhibition of Avant-Garde jewelery, but somehow missed the Kara Walker exhibition. Next time.

Life in the tropics

2007-11-07T07:10:00.000-08:00

This morning for the first time this "fall" I put on a light jacket to take the dog for a walk. But then I came home to harvest these:

Meyer Lemons in front of Jasmine

These still have some time before they ripen:

The fig is a little out of focus, but I love the leaf.

And our approx. 7 foot x 7 foot Hibiscus is in full bloom and laced through with Plumbago.

This is a winter I could get used to...as my friends up North head inside I'm on my way out the door after a summer hiding from blistering heat. It all feels so very backwards, but right now I'm loving it.

A change is coming...

2007-11-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

Since arriving in Texas I have been applying for jobs; many, many jobs. My criteria was that they had to be jobs I was interested in (lucky me to have the luxury to choose and to wait) and that they would challenge me. It has been a long and often depressing wait as I didn't even get interview requests for any of the full time jobs I applied for. The wait is over. I was offered a job last week helping to coordinate research in a center that investigates ethics and health policy and I accepted. The work will be intellectually stimulating, and will give me a chance to learn a lot about genetics and ethics as well as to do a wide variety of tasks, including a lot of writing, over the period of the three year grant. The fact that the information we gather will be used to make policy recommendations, and that I will be a part of making those recommendations in the third year, is especially exciting. I now have 4 weeks to get my house in order.

In the meantime I've been working helping international nurses get settled here and doing a minimal amount of sewing and knitting. Here's some proof:

I don't know if I have plans to be a better blog poster. I have been trying to do more living and less looking. I wish I was the kind of person who didn't get sucked into the whole blogosphere in an obsessive way, but I am. It gets especially bad for me when I'm down, which I have been since we returned from France, and I find that looking at the beauty (granted that little slice we're willing to put out there) and productivity of other people's lives just mires me more. Hence I try to stay away from the computer and I usually feel much better that way. Hopefully my horizons will broaden with a new job and some mental stimulation and I will be back here in the way I was meant to be.

2007-09-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Two weeks in France have come and gone. I enjoyed every single last second of it. I felt very at home there; the walking, the biking, the baking, the weather, the individuality in people’s dress, the incredible gardens and flowers everywhere. I felt so incredibly lucky to spend two weeks there, so appreciative and so alive.

We also saw lots of old stones:

Which works on a person’s perspective. I’m not religious, and don’t go to church, but the size, beauty and age of these amazing buildings really gets to you. Standing inside an enormous church, ruin around it, that was built in the 9th century makes you feel very small in the scheme of things. I thought so often about all the lives that had passed through these buildings; the sorrows and joys people had brought with them to these places, now long gone and forgotten, and I know that my life in the grand scheme of things is just a blink of an eye. I experienced that kind of happiness that teeters on the edge of overwhelming tears for most of the trip, because I could see in these ancient stones how fleeting it all really is. Note to self: don’t sweat the small stuff!

It has been almost exactly 15 years since I met this guy in a cafe in Dahab Egypt, both of us with backpacks and me with only $5.00 left in my pocket. I took a huge leap of faith then and accepted his invitation to travel overland to China. I know now, once again, that traveling with him is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It still is all these years later.

Here comes the rain again

2007-09-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is raining again in Houston, like it does everyday. It could put a crimp in our summer grilling routine, but I live with an adventurous griller.

Our grass is like a full sponge, there are tadpoles in the neighborhood puddles and I have to wipe the dog's feet before she comes back into the house after our walks. I have yet to see "gentle rain" here in Southeast Texas.

In other news I went a little crazy last week at co-op and bought 30 pounds of these organic Heirloom tomatoes:

And 16 pounds of organic Strawberries, here are some of them ready to be dehydrated:

8 hours later I had canned tomatoes and strawberry jam along with 4 lbs. of dehydrated strawberries. You'll just have to believe me, at the end I was too tired to take pictures of preserves.

Last year just didn't feel right since we didn't have a garden in and I didn't can my own tomatoes. These tomatoes really tasted homegrown, but of course, were not. The only thing that ate tomatoes out of my yard this year were squirrels (and peppers too!). Considering growing tomatoes in this climate is a crap shoot (it gets too hot too fast for them) and they don't taste nearly as good as my northern tomatoes I think I'm giving up the ghost on tomatoes. This winter I will depend on snap peas, chard and greens, all things that do well here. In other produce news my Meyer Lemon tree is full of, yet to mature, lemons.

Tomorrow I am going transatlantic for two weeks, alone with Juan. The kids and my mother in law will hold down the fort while I work on my chocolate and cheese diet, a big thick book and a few slender things I plan to read while sitting outside in no humidity temps of around 70 degrees. Heaven.

Dog days

2007-08-17T12:39:00.001-07:00

We got back just in time for the real dog days of summer. We also got a real dog, a true boon for sweating it out on our twice daily walks. I think this is probably the best non-prescription anti-depressant. My mood since getting her, no matter hundred degree temps and plus 80 percent humidity, is 100 percent better than before we left for the East Coast. My walking partner is pretty cute too.

Gracie

While away I finished Picovoli I took pictures of me in it, however, Mica, who has been lobbying for me to give it to her won out as the public model. This was decided after the kids both said, after looking at the pics I took of myself, "You look SO much better in person!"

Picovoli

Other finished items include a skein I spun up for my friend Drew. I neglected to take pictures of it, but you can find him documenting its transformation here.

If you're a weather news junkie you undoubtably heard about our tropical storm, downgraded to depression. Nonetheless one of the entrances to my neighborhood yesterday was completely underwater. There were a lot of leaves in the pool this morning.

The Blog of my Dreams

2007-08-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still here, back from DC and enmeshed in the day to day of my life and pondering what to write about here.

BUT I just had to share a blog I just found (that perhaps everyone else already knows about) that has got me inspired and excited and feeling creative Cecil Vortex "...a churning urn of burning funk..."

There are quite a few reasons I'm loving this site so much. The guy has great musical taste, as evidenced by his The Bands I've Seen Project (many I've seen as well), the Conversations on Creativity are fantastic; the questions and answers move far beyond what most interviews on creativity manage to capture and he's just plan funny and critical in a way I enjoy.

Worth checking out and adding to my own list of Inspiring and Informing.

Heaven

2007-07-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

Today was spectacular. The weather was perfect and I was on my own. My mom and stepdad took the kids to a horseshoe tournament. My stepfather just so happens to be ranked 4th in high ringer average in the world. So he's pretty serious about horseshoes. Before I met him I had no idea horseshoes was a bona fide sport. Micaela was scoring the tournament today to make a few extra bucks.

I headed for Dupont Circle, an area of Washington DC that I know very well and that holds lots of memories for me. It is my favorite neighborhood in DC, and while I know I could never afford to live there it is probably one of my top five places that I would like to live. Maybe number one considering it is right near my family. I bought Jane Hirshfield's newest book of poetry for reading with coffee later in the day, ate lunch, and then I headed up to S St. specifically for this:

I saw a gorgeous exhibition of central Asian tent bands. The colors, the textures, the insane amount of work that went into these practical works of art!! I so wanted to take pictures, but alas no pictures in the gallery. Not so in the gift shop where I saw books on natural dyeing and knitting and spinning that I had never seen before. Plus the textiles for sale were museum quality themselves with prices to match. I didn't buy, but I did admire. This is just one corner of the store.
From here I walked to another favorite neighborhood, Adams Morgan, where Madame's Organ is still to be found keeping watch over Columbia Rd.
Coffee, poetry reading and writing ensued before walking back down the hill.

More wall art in Adams Morgan

Everywhere I went I felt like I was going to bump into my 16 year old self dressed in a dirty black slip on her way to the nearby hotel to wash herself in the "public" bathroom sinks off the lobby. Or maybe my somewhat older 18 year old self dirty and sweaty from working as a bike courier locking my bike to a parking meter for the dash into a building with a delivery. This trip home has been all about the past. I've met up with various people I haven't seen in over 20 years and for the most part it has made me feel good about the direction my life took. Still, there is a bittersweet sense of my youth and being in such a beautiful, walkable city makes me yearn to live here again.

On my way back to the car I took this picture and then realized, when I got to the end of the block, that this house was only three or four down from the abandoned house where I squatted with some other kids when I was 16. I walked down this street a few weeks ago when I went out to dinner with some friends and couldn't place exactly which house it was. Once this street was so familiar to me, now I can't place it a few weeks later. It all looks so posh and upscale now!

One last picture before I got in the car. I've always loved the National Headquarters of the Supreme Council of Scottish Rites right behind me, but I didn't do such a great job of getting it in.

I think I got some sun today.

Who's coming for dinner?

2007-07-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

1. If you could invite three people to dinner (they can be living, dead or fictional) whom would you invite, and why would you invite them?

First up, Ella Maillart, she was a trailblazer literally and figuratively. She traveled to faraway places under dangerous conditions and wrote spectacularly about it. A sailor, photographer and great writer I'm sure she'd have some fantastic stories to tell. I highly recommend her books, especially The Cruel Way.

The Dalai Lama. He and Ella could talk about her trip through Tibet in the 20s and I can't see him without wanting to smile. I heard him speak in Houston and his laugh and spirit were infectious.

Sharon Olds would be my third choice. She is probably my favorite poet and I admire her, not only for her work with words, but for her strong political convictions and her ambivalent attitude towards motherhood. Her poems are never sentimental, but strip situations down to their raw essentials.

2. At this dinner, what would you serve (meal planning is the key to the soul, I think)?

I would serve very good homemade baguettes and whatever fruit and vegetables were in season (the fruit with clotted cream!), good cheese and wine and ripe melon wrapped in proscuitto.

3.If you could live go back in time and live in any era, which era would you choose?
I think I would probably like to come of age in the 1920s. So many things changed for women then and I think it would be an exciting time to be woman....of course a woman with choices and some means. Kind of like when people say they would like to be a cat. I guess it goes unsaid that they would want to be a well cared for cat!

Thanks to Linda for this meme. I won't tag anyone, but enjoyed thinking about this.

More math

2007-06-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

Another experiment with natural dyes. This time I took this:

12 oz. of Parmelia Sulcata (tree lichens) from the tree we took down in the front of our house.

Plus

4 oz. of handspun angora I brought back from Argentina (along with several other kilos of yarn!) two years ago. I didn't think to take a picture until it was in the bowl of water. The brighter white at the top is the still dry fiber. There was also a tablespoon of alum and a teaspoon of cream of tartar added to the dye pot.

Equals this

Not particularly brilliant.... I don't think the work of scraping all those lichens off the downed tree was really worth it. Now I know to pass them up next time. I knit this for my friend J, who does have two hands, as part of an offline swap.

My dye garden was officially a bust, but there are still things in my yard that are plentiful and possible dye plants: yarrow, tansy, hibiscus and turk's cap.

This post has been sitting in draft form for over a week! I'm off tomorrow for the East Coast to spend time with friends and family. I've had some realizations this week about things that have been holding me back, things I have determined I will overcome. I have a plan and that is a good thing. Until I return here are a few things I've finished recently; gifts for others that I will deliver in person this week.

Veronik Avery's Prairie Tunic

Mari from Hip Knit Hats in red onion skin dyed handspun merino

Twins

2007-06-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

These are thank you gifts for two little girls who kept Sofia company in California. As always my sewing method is slapdash and less than perfect, but they work and it seems they coveted Sofia's pencil case while she was there. I don't think they'll critique my craftsmanship!

A Texas kind of day....

2007-06-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

My first outing today was to pick up my meat order from Paidom. I saw Staci there waiting for her box.

What would you decide to do if you were in Texas on a day where the heat index is over 100? Go to a State Park, of course. This guy was not shy...

Immature Black Crowned Night Heron

These were sharing the same bush. Dewberries are another Texas treat I didn't know I was missing. They are a bit smaller than blackberries and I think sweeter.

I finished Veronik Avery's Prairie Tunic last night it just needs to be blocked. I'm also in the middle of helping Sofia make a doll for a swap. I'm amazed at how adept she is with scissors and she draws very well. We'll see how the construction comes together. I'm not worried about her sewing, she is very good on the machine...my construction skills are the concern!

I also finally finished spinning up almost 500yds of incredibly soft merino superwash for the ubiquitous Clapotis. I just need to dye it first. Last night I cast on for the Bella Blouse. Kudos to all my knitting compatriots who enjoy lace, but I HATE it. What was I thinking when I decided to buy yarn to make this top? It is possible that I may turn the border into something cabled. I have done hats before with a cabled border that is then picked up. Maybe I just need to get through something I don't really want to...isn't that supposed to be character building?

Gotta fly!

A little math

2007-06-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

425 grams of this (hand spun superwash merino mordanted with alum):

Plus 200 grams of this (red onion skins):

Equals this:

Not the color I was expecting. I don't really eat tons of red onions; a fringe benefit of working at the co-op is being able to empty 25 lb. boxes of red onions of loose skins.

Quick and dirty

2007-05-25T13:41:00.001-07:00

Sofia and Micaela took off yesterday for San Francisco to spend time with their grandmother and uncle. I whipped this up for Sofia in 1 1/2 hours just before they left.

The craftsmanship leaves something to be desired (the lines are not even I didn't even bother to measure), but it works and her colored pencils won't be swimming around at the bottom of her backpack. And of course she was happy and thought it was perfect!

Flashback...Fast Forward

2007-05-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday an old friend of mine sent me this picture...

I was 17 and in my very first apartment after a time spent squatting in an abandoned factory, and then in an abandoned house. The house was busted while I was on a whirlwind adventure to Virgina Beach in a car that was too small with a limited soundtrack (we had exactly one tape in the car; Metallica's Ride the Lightning). When I got back to DC all my stuff (conveniently stored in a big black trash bag) had been removed by the police, all I had left was what I was wearing. A few months, and several sofas later, I was living in a basement apartment in a building that was owned by a friend's father. I was the youngest tenant, but most of us were young, unemployed and irresponsible. These were my "dorm" years.

Now the fast forward...

We took my mother-in-law to San Antonio for the day. Somehow when I was 17 it seemed like I would always be 17. This past week I have been encountering my past at every turn...A friend sent me this book and I saw lots of familiar faces, including a picture of the friend who sent me the picture. I watched this movie and re-lived quite a few shows I went to, and I had two old friends find me via the internet. I plan to meet up with them, and my friend the photographer, when the girls and I head to DC in July.

Time marches on...

Roots

2007-05-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

While I'm on the subject of trees...Here is something I completed as part of an offline swap with a group of people from my former hometown. The recipient was Tumbling Blocks and this was really an extra, as the main swap gift was the Cosima hat from Hip Knit Hats. Hopefully Dorie will post a picture of herself in the hat, as the one I took of myself in it, well, I just can't post it. I am that vain. It is appliqued to a piece of red felt (Sarah, I cut up the felted sweater you gave me, forgive me! But there are plans in it for you too, and I thought it was fitting that it has a bit of both of us in it.) and I appliqued pink paisley fabric on the back with this poem written on it. Spring required more than a hat knit with baby alpaca. I received a very cool planter with a knit "cozy" from Sarah When I decide what to put in it I will post a picture

I'm feeling a bit more settled here mostly due having some set moments in the week where I get together with people with whom I share some interests (one day of the week it is food and the other fiber) and a lot of laughs. In my experience (having moved 5 times in the span of 10 years and living in 9 different States/Countries over a lifetime) it takes about 2 years to really feel like I can put down some roots; I'm almost at the one year mark here. I've also realized over these nomad years that my roots really have to do less with places and more with people. I definitely envy people with strong roots and historical connections, but I also have a group of people from all over the world who I know I can count on and who would take me in if I ever showed up on their doorstep. I also know that I have what it takes to make it anywhere, even if it means suffering quite a bit initially (and this move in particular has been harder than any before it). Juan's mom is here right now, and now that I have been with Juan for 15 (!!) years she is definitely a big part of my life and it is great to have her here with the girls. It is nice to have some constants in this life of continual change.